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Where to start when you’re renting out your property

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Where to start when you’re renting out your property

Saturday, 6 October 2018, 11:30AM

Renting out your property may be a great way to earn extra income. If you’re entering the rental market for the first time, we’ve got some tips ready to help you get the ball rolling.

Who will manage the property?

The first thing you must decide about renting out your property is who will be doing the legwork and managing it for you. Managing a property takes some effort, and you can hire a property manager or agent to perform the tasks for you or you can save the money and do it yourself.

For a fee, a property manager will be able to assist with:

Finding, screening, managing, and communicating with the tenants

Advertising the property for rent and facilitating viewings

Setting, adjusting, and collecting rent

Evicting tenants and dealing with tenant issues, and lease terminations

Managing maintenance and repairs at the property

Managing property paperwork and preparing rental agreements

If you decide to do any of the above tasks yourself, you’ll need to have full understanding of them so you do not miss anything. Setting a fair rental price in a shifting market can sometimes be tricky, whilst making sure your rental paperwork is in order and tenant contracts don’t have any loopholes is also important.

For a fee, the rental agent will be able to arrange everything for you, saving you time and hassle. You won’t have to directly deal with the tenants, and you can simply give the final go-ahead on the big decisions. Of course many people manage their own properties with great success and it’s your choice which way you’d like to go.

The property appearance

After you’ve decided what’s happening with property management, you can focus on getting the property looking nice for tenants. The better appointed your property and the more well-kept it looks, the better chance you’ll have at getting the tenants you want for the price you seek.

This might involve performing renovations, repainting, buying a few new appliances, adding furniture, tending to the garden, and including some plants, or accessories. It’s also best to get any repairs and maintenance work done now too. If you’re thinking of doing any of these things, you should do them prior to anyone moving in so as not to compromise access to the home.

A little spruce up can add value to the home, and can mean you may be able to charge a higher rent. Also consider things such as changing shower curtains, cleaning carpets, pest control, checking smoke detectors, and window cleaning. The better presented your home appears, the more likely your tenant will respect your property in the long term.

Get landlord Insurance

Landlord insurance is an important part of your rental set up cost. It will help to protect your back pocket should something go wrong at your property or with your tenancy. Landlord insurance can provide insurance for the property itself, in case of fire or theft, and also against tenancy issues such as not being to find a tenant and losing rental income, as well as rental default if your tenants fail to pay rent.

Insurance issued by Insurance Australia Limited ABN 11 000 016 722 trading as CGU Insurance. Any advice is general only. Consider the relevant PDS available from cgu.com.au to see if a product is right for you.